1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to matrix printers and particularly to ink jet printers. It particularly relates to improvements in the generation of patterns of dots forming characters in accordance with a novel character font and to the generation of such characters more rapidly with particular printers than formerly has been possible.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art matrix printers have been designed to operate within certain speed ranges. They cannot generally print effectively, or at all, at speeds which exceed those ranges. These upper limits on operating speeds impose undesirable limits in circumstances in which higher speeds are required, but where limits of space or other considerations militate against the use of other equipment which can operate at faster rates. This is especially the case in those circumstances where the use of such other equipment would require drastic changes in the configuration of a printing system.
The control systems employed with the prior art devices have generally been designed to operate the printers within the designed speed limits. Little or no attention has been directed to the possibility of providing a new character font which, together with new control systems operating in a novel way, enable the production of characters at faster rates without driving the printing equipment beyond its capacity.
Among the prior art ink jet printers are drop-on-demand printers which can produce printed characters at relatively high speeds. However, with prior art printers of a desired configuration, it has not been possible to print, i.e. produce dots, at speeds above a certain level. In particular, with the prior art it has not been found feasible to meet the needs of check endorsing operations requiring operation at higher speeds while staying within certain parameters respecting size and shape.